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Wal-Mart executive sees February sales as “total disaster”

Wal-Mart’s stock is taking it on the chin this afternoon. At last glance the stock is down 3.5%, after Bloomberg got hold of an email from Jerry Murray, Wal- Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News.

“In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal- Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives, referring to month-to-date sales. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company.”